Bamboo has an important place in our response to climate change as it helps mitigate the effects in several ways. Mixed bamboo species planted in areas that have little forest cover now can help with sequestration of CO2 for some years, but eventually the rate of sequestration levels out. The use of the culms for building,etc. stores some carbon over the long term as well. Research published by Lawrence Livermore Laboratory climate modelers shows that reforestation can only help for a while, but that is just what we must do to stabilize the climate while we transition from a fossil fuel energy economy to a sustainable energy economy. So bamboo with it's ability to rapidly provide cover to exposed lands has an important role.
In nature, bamboo is but one plant in a matrix that includes trees so I'd suggest that bamboo plantings should be considered in a wider context, as one element in the re-establishment of a forest containing a diversity of species.
One important effect is that bamboo can help reduce erosion both by breaking up rain drops, slowing runoff in the mulch and by trapping soil that would otherwise be lost. In this way planting bamboo may help to counter or reduce desertification, which is one of the most serious effects of climate change that we face today. Bamboo grows well "along the margins" and can help restore marginalized or exhausted land cleared for other uses.
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